Maintaining a proper kicking angle is a recurring problem for amateur and semi-professional kickers. The proper kicking angle in punting and soccer-style kicking is achieved through toe depression. Toe depression is the angling of the toes and forefoot downward from the rearfoot and ankle, and out of the way of the ball being kicked. Proper toe depression prevents the toes from adversely affecting the flight of the football, which should properly contact only the top of the kicker's foot above the arch.
Previous kicking shoe inventions have been directed toward attachments to the shoes, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,661,547, 3,525,165, and 4,065,861. These inventions add bulk and weight to the shoe, and consist of artificially shaped kicking surfaces on the top of the forefoot These attachments may be unwieldy, hazardous, or illegal, and they ignore the natural kicking motion of a professional punter. These prior art kicking shoes do not teach the use of a shoe construction for achieving proper toe depression.
Because of the lack of a proper kicking shoe, many kickers prefer to kick barefooted, in spite of the risk of injury to their feet. The reason for this is that conventional kicking shoes actually restrain the foot from achieving the proper geometry (i.e., optimum toe depression) for successful kicking. It should be appreciated that a punter must concentrate to maintain his foot at the correct angle for a successful punt. This proper angle may not be achieved for a number of reasons including poor footing, lack of concentration due to a bad snap, or a "lazy ankle" in the kicker.